Leadership Training at TakeAction Minnesota
At TakeAction Minnesota, we strive to use all the best tools for organizing and building power that we can find. We utilize a range of methodologies that draw from community organizing, electoral campaigns, organizing for racial justice, communications and changing the terms of the public debate.
Please continue to check this page for information on upcoming trainings.
Types of trainings:
- Personal transformation: Trainings in this category are personalized; they are about you, and your effectiveness in the world. Trainers will ask you to be honest, share with other participants, and reflect on the attitudes and behaviors that may be making you less effective, and less powerful, than you could be. Trainings in this category include Power, Self-Interest, Effective Meetings, One-to-one Visits, and Advanced Leaders trainings.
- Skill – building: Trainings in this category are intended to hone your existing organizing and leadership skills through knowledge and practice. Trainings in this category include Communications, Organizing a Door-knock, Phone-bank, or House Meeting, and Turning Problems into Issues.
- Informational: Trainings in this category are focused on information, often about an issue, but sometimes about how to approach an area of work. Trainings in this category include Worldview, Racial Justice Analysis, Understanding the Economy, and Direct Actions.
Please note that few trainings are wholly “in one category”. There may be elements of personal transformation, skill-building, and information in every training we do. Most trainings emphasize one approach more than another.
Who Provides the Trainings?
Trainers for TakeAction Trainings draw from TakeAction’s experienced organizing staff, as well as local and national leaders. What we can promise is that no one will be training you solely from an “outline”. People leading trainings have had experience, often years of experience, in the topic they are presenting. They have wrestled with the same questions they will be asking you. They have lots of experience to share about what has worked and what hasn’t -- just like you. Trainings strive to be interactive, so that you get to share your experience as well.
A word about our Training Curriculum:
Because we use and train on the most effective methodologies that we know of, the TakeAction training curriculum owes a debt of gratitude to many others in the progressive movement. Our curriculum is based on the very good organizing and training work of these organizations, among others:
- The Applied Research Center
- The Gamaliel Foundation
- The Grassroots Policy Project
- The Industrial Areas Foundation
- Service Employees International Union, Local 26
- Wellstone Action
Organizing a Training for Your Organization:
If you would like to schedule a training for your organization, please contact Pamela Twiss at 651-379-0748 or Pamela@TakeActionMinnesota.org. We like to make sure that specially scheduled trainings will have a critical mass of participants and fit into the overall workplan of your organization.